Tamás Jónás (Hungary)

Tamás Jónás was born to a Roma family in the derelict city of Azd in Northern Hungary, a dinosaur of the forced industrialisation of the 'socialist' Hungary of the '50s. Of his childhood, he wrote an autobiographical work entitled Gypsy Times (1997), published in German with the title Als ich noch Zigeuner war. The first part of this book is a diary in which the 21-year-old poet tells the story of the 4-year-old child who finds himself in an institute after his parents are taken to debtors' prison. Today Jónás lives in Budapest with his wife and two sons.